Audiobooks Let You Read While Sitting In Traffic

If this article sounds like I’m trying to sell you the idea of AudioBooks, that’s because it is! I’ve tried to convince ALL my friends and family to start using Audio Books because I whole heartedly believe in them – please read on to see why…

How many hours a day do you sit in traffic?

For the average person, I’m guessing it’s about 1 hour to work, and 1 hour home. That’s about 10 hours a week!

Can you IMAGINE if you had 10 hours a week to read that book you’ve always wanted to read?

Can you IMAGINE no longer feeling like traffic is a waste of time?!

About 4 years ago I was asked to attend a week-long course that meant I would spend about 4 hours a day sitting in traffic. (For those people living in Johannesburg, I was travelling from Bedfordview to Pretoria during rush hour – ABSOLUTELY PAINFUL!!!).

On Monday evening, I got home and refused to go to bed until I had found a few audiobooks to listen to so that I could at least say that my time spent sitting in traffic was not wasted. And that is how I found the website Audible.com

Why Traffic SUCKS!

Let me back up a bit and explain WHY I hated spending so much time in traffic. Here’s my “list of hates” about traffic, let’s see how many of them you have:

Those @#$%^ TAXIS!!!! I suppose this MIGHT be something that doesn’t really affect everyone (though I know every country in the world has their own taxi driver problems). But it’s REALLY frustrating sitting in the queue like every law-abiding citizen while taxi drivers can do whatever they like

I’m sure I lose brain cells sitting staring at the car in front, waiting for it to move. It doesn’t take a genius to wait in traffic and stare into space (though it does not mean there aren’t absolute MORONS on the road).

Did I mention that it’s a waste of time?

The Benefits of AudioBooks (for me)

So, what are the benefits of listening to AudioBooks while driving?

You can take your mind off of the fact that there are idiots on the road. It doesn’t take much to concentrate on a book while driving, but it also means that you couldn’t give 2 hoots about the other drivers because you’re enjoying your book!

You don’t have to listen to Fiction books! You can read self-help books or business books. My first audiobook from Audible.com was a Suze Orman book. I just felt like learning something while I was driving.

Taxi drivers can drive on the pavement for all I care. I’ll just wait in the traffic and listen to my books.

Waste of time? Not really. In fact, sometimes I’ve delved so deeply into my book that I’ve arrived at my destination only to sit in the car for 10 minutes to carry on listening to my book!

As I mention above, I’ve been a really happy member of Audible.com for around 4 years now.

I’ve only had one issue in all that time, and that was my error where I bought the wrong book (I already had the hardcopy). I quickly contacted Audible and asked them for a refund (I said I was going to swap it for another book by the same author) and they trusted me enough to allow it.

They’ve also had my credit card details all this time and (touch wood) it’s been completely safe.

Sign up for the free trial. You do have to enter you credit card details in case you carry on with your membership, but it’s REALLY easy to cancel your membership if you want to stop. (I got 2 free AudioBooks from Audible, but I finished them that week and as I’ve said, I’ve been a member ever since).

Well, that’s it really. Download your audiobooks, record them to CD (or play them on your iPod… WAY easier) and pass your travel time with ease. 🙂

Do you have any questions about this? Or any comments? Please let me know by leaving a comment below.

And thank you for letting me send this out to everybody! I’ll follow up with more info on buying audiobooks from Audible.com and when are my favourite times to listen to them…

There are some books that are best read than listened to. An example of this is “The Notebook” by Nicholas Sparks. It’s a fantastic story and it is truly well read by George Guidall. But it’s a real tear-jerker and in the print version you can skip over the sad bits. Not so with the audio book.

Now that they are available on Audible I must recommend the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series (all 8 of them) by Alexander McCall Smith. They are set in Gaborone, Botswana and are quite charming.